My neighbor the geology nerd said my backyard had a buried creek bed and I dug up a 19th century horseshoe 3 feet down

He was dead right about the iron staining in the soil after I hit rust at 18 inches, so has anyone else found random metal trash from old farms while digging test pits?

3 comments

3 Comments

reesemoore1mo ago

And then once you start paying attention to the soil stains you can't stop seeing them everywhere. I found a broken plow blade four feet down behind my garage last spring, same kind of rusty orange halo in the dirt. The old-timer down the road told me there used to be a blacksmith shop two properties over, so that horseshoe probably got thrown out when it wore thin and just sank into the old creek bed over 150 years. I've dug up square nails, a glass bottle with the seam still visible, and half a wagon wheel rim just from poking around wet spots in the yard. The trick is if the ground feels spongy even when it's dry, that's usually a sign something is buried underneath the topsoil. You get to where you can spot the darker soil lines almost like reading a map of what used to be there.

ross.kevin10d ago

Yeah see I gotta disagree a little bit. I think the spongy ground thing is more about old tree roots rotting out or maybe a buried drainage pipe that collapsed, not necessarily a guarantee of old junk. I've dug in plenty of soft spots and found nothing but wet clay and a few grubs. And the darker soil lines, I don't know, a lot of that is just natural stuff like old creek beds or where the dirt settled different after a flood. Not saying you're wrong about your yard, but I think people get a little too excited and start seeing signs everywhere when it's mostly just the ground being the ground.

wendy_jackson1mo ago

Right back to that spongy ground thing. My yard has a spot that stays soft no matter how dry it gets, and I dug up a rusted out bed frame from the 1920s. Not quite a treasure, more like a tetanus vaccine waiting to happen. Guess the old farmers just threw everything into the nearest hole when it broke. Now I walk around my yard like I'm hunting for landmines, poking grass with a shovel. Thanks for the new hobby, geology neighbor.